Heat generation is an undesired byproduct of operating microchips. Typically, excess heat flows to a heat sink through thermal vias and wire bonds. However, as wiring systems become more complex, designers are increasingly being challenged to place the thermal vias, especially in applications with limited space. These problems are exacerbated in high temperature operating environments. While simple components such as FETS, diodes and low power integrated chips (IC) have solutions, problems exist for high pincount devices such as microchips, flash memory, SRAM, etc.
Thus, in automotive engine applications, such as automotive transmissions, designers face a daunting challenge. In such an environment, often approaching 140 Celsius, the maximum operating temperature can be as low as 150 Celsius, leaving a window of only 10 Celsius. While cooling systems can help alleviate these problems, such systems add both cost, as well as weight, to the system, and can therefore be undesirable.
FIG. 1 illustrates a prior art circuit board 100 including substrate 105. A plurality of flip chips. IC's and other electronic devices 140 are mounted to substrate 105 using appropriate techniques. In addition, microchip 110 is wirebonded 120 to the substrate, with wirebond 120 providing at least some heat sink functionality for microchip 110. As can be seen in FIG. 1, microchip 110 includes a significant footprint on the substrate 105, especially when including the wirebond 120.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a system for dissipating heat that would overcome the aforementioned and other disadvantages.